The Gleaners and I(2000)
dir. Agnès Varda
Who picks up what the rest of us throw away?
Where to watch: Criterion Channel, rent on AmazonLetterboxd ↗
Agnès Varda takes a small digital camera around France to find the people who gather what others leave behind: farmers' fields picked over after the harvest, bins behind supermarkets, abandoned appliances, and the street markets at closing time. Some do it out of need, some out of principle, some out of habit. Varda films them, the old gleaning law, and herself, her aging hands included, in the same unhurried look.
Why it’s here
The punk move is the form: Varda treats a digital camera as a gleaning tool and makes a film out of leftovers, including her own, with no pretense of neutrality and plenty of play. The pedagogy is in the question it quietly asks of the viewer: what counts as waste, who decides, and what does it say about a society that makes so much that people can live off the surplus? She talks to people with dignity and curiosity, never pity, so the film teaches a way of looking at poverty and abundance that a young person can carry into any grocery store.
Where This Film Lives
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